08/24/2025
Feeling like your pain will never end isn’t catastrophizing - it’s a protective response.
When you feel a painful symptom and immediately start feeling scared that this pain is never going to end, you’re not being dramatic or catastrophizing.
Your nervous system is responding from a place of learned experience, and it’s trying to do its absolute best to protect you.
It’s incredibly hard to hold out hope in the middle of a flare-up when your body remembers what happened last time. Not only did your pain last for weeks or months without any medical answers, but it also might’ve come with a devastating lack of support and validation.
You learned that people get uncomfortable when you talk about your pain.
You learned that doctors dismiss you.
You learned that even the people who love you most don’t always know how to be present with your suffering.
So now, whenever you have a new painful sensation, all of your safety sensors immediately activate. Your nervous system is just trying to get you to safety as quickly as possible, even though what you actually need is to be patient and stay present with the discomfort.
If you do have people in your corner now - supportive friends, better doctors, or even just more internal resources than you had before - it’s still incredibly difficult.
Your nervous system doesn’t trust that this time will be different. It’s operating from the memory of being alone with your pain, and it’s doing everything it can to protect you from experiencing that abandonment again.
This is your body trying to keep you safe based on what it’s learned about the world. And knowing this can be the first step toward giving yourself the compassion you deserve when pain shows up.
Thoughts?
